Westerners Prefer To Shoot At Muslims

A new report conducted by researchers in Australia finds that western people when confronted by turbans and hijabs in computer games are more likely to shoot at the Muslim even if he/she is innocent:



"A Muslim-style turban is perceived as a threat, according to a new study, even by people who don't realize they hold the prejudice, dubbed "the turban effect" by researchers.



Research volunteers played a computer game that showed apartment balconies on which different figures appeared, some wearing Muslim-style turbans or hijabs and others bare-headed. They were told to shoot at the targets carrying guns and spare those who were unarmed, with points awarded accordingly.



People were much more likely to shoot Muslim-looking characters - men or women - even if they were carrying an innocent item instead of a weapon, the researchers found.



"Whether they're holding a steel coffee mug or a gun, people are just more likely to shoot at someone who is wearing a turban," says author Christian Unkelbach, a visiting scholar at Australia's University of New South Wales. "Just putting on this piece of clothing changes people's behaviour."



Unkelbach largely blames one-sided media portrayals for the bias.....



...the Australian study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, confirmed that people don't even realize they hold these biased views. When the true intention of the experiment was revealed, Unkelbach says participants insisted they were not prejudiced and must have reacted differently from everyone else.



"The most common response was, 'I'm sure I didn't show that effect,'" he says. "They're uncomfortable and I believe them - people are not doing this willingly. If they could, they would control that. Here, people are almost the victims of what they are fed by their environment." (Source: The Vancouver Sun)



The researcher blames the media I think that he is wrong. It is the Muslims themselves that are at fault for being Muslim. If they changed religion they would no longer be a target.



source: http://kashmiri-nomad.blogspot.com/